In this project, five schools all across Europe – Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland and Turkey – unite in order to tackle the major differences that we, as teachers of these schools, perceive in the educational opportunities of our students. It is our task to constantly develop new ways to foster these students’ personal growth, education and development of self-confidence – a chance that they might not get otherwise. According to our experience, it is particularly physical challenges and outdoor activities that boost these students’ self esteem, no matter what their special educational needs may be. And it is this type of self esteem that is believed to affect the professional chances of these youths positively in the long run. Our project, which is called “Earth, Wind, Water and Fire”, is aimed at students who attend grades six to nine, while its major focus lies on students that are about twelve to fourteen years of age. Each of the five partner schools selects between 25 and 30 students to meet in each other’s countries, which makes a total of at least 140 students who will meet during the mobilities within a time frame of two years. In addition to that, other students from the local schools may participate in the activities held between the mobilities. All these youths are from widely diverse social and educational backgrounds, naturally holding very different educational needs. The combination of the elements “fire, water, earth, air (wind)” is the central theme of this project. After a short introduction into the topic that will take place at the first meeting in Germany, each school in the project is assigned one of these elements. “Fire”, for instance, matches the Polish school, as it was built on the grounds of an extinct volcano; “water” matches the Lithuanian school which lies amidst rivers and lakes; “earth” matches the Turkish school with its proximity to a beautiful dripstone cave nearby; and, finally, “air” (or “wind”), is a core element of the profile of our French school, where the training of wind energy technicians is an integral part of its educational programme. The activities themselves are designed to pose challenges to the participants and help them achieve smaller or even bigger goals. Therefore, the activities need to go beyond the classroom setting and to deemphasize the mere reproduction/ accumulation of knowledge. Instead, the activities are designed in a way that triggers small personal (and team) successes so that the students learn what it feels like to have successfully overcome their fears and achieved something. The activities often take place in outside settings and therefore help the students to reconnect with nature. Activities may include the following: Hiking (e.g. to extinct volcanos), making camp fires, skiing, canoeing, paragliding and other physical challenges; discovering the miraculous workings of dripstone caves or the beauty of botanical gardens; workshops and creative activities as well as scientific experiment in groups that foster practical and autonomous learning. During each activity, the students will produce videos that are all part of a “mini-series” consisting of a total of five “episodes” about their ventures in the respective host country. These videos will thus lead to “our first season” of a "mini-series" about the entire project. The primary goal of the activities planned within the frame of this project is to boost the students’ self-confidence and motivate them to engage more actively in diverse learning situations. The students will discover their strengths and weaknesses and in turn accept their fellow students for who they really are and also help and support each other. In turn, this experience will increase their welfare at school and help them to better tackle the challenges that await them throughout the remaining years at school. We believe that the project will help raise their interest in doing well and engage in school, overcome their fears of failure and prevent them from quitting school early. In sum, this project will pay a major contribution to motivating our students and teachers and to develop further the approach to constantly challenge and foster our students. In the long term, this project will create an intercultural awareness for each other and help us all to engage in student-oriented, motivating, truly ‘active’ activities that will boost the self-confidence.
"Earth, wind, water and fire": The project partners come from Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland and Turkey. The participating schools are similarly affected by the heterogeneity and different educational opportunities of their students. The teachers are always looking for ways to motivate low-performing students to grow beyond themselves, to be able to do things that they do not learn in their families, and to complete tasks as well as possible. Sports challenges and outdoor activities in particular strengthen the self-esteem of young people, whether they have special needs or not. Strong self-esteem has a lasting positive effect on young people's career prospects. The project “ Earth, wind, water and fire” was aimed primarily at students in grades 6 to 9, with a focus on ages 12-14. Only in the Polish partner school were the participants slightly older. Within 3 years - despite the initial Corona restrictions - a total of over 150 students from the 5 partner schools took part in 5 encounters, 104 of which took part in mobilities abroad. In addition, there were the participants in the activities between the mobilities that were carried out at the local partner schools. The participants came from different educational backgrounds and social classes, and students with special needs were also able to take part. When making the selection, all teachers paid particular attention to disadvantaged young people who, for example, were unable to travel with their families. The elements fire, water, earth and air (wind) formed the thematic thread of the project. After an introduction to the four subject areas in a first meeting in Germany, each school was then assigned an element. So “fire” suited the Polish school, which is located near an extinct volcano; then "water" suited the Lithuanian school, which is located in a thermal resort surrounded by rivers and lakes; the term "earth" belonged to the Turkish school, near which there is a beautiful stalactite cave; and so "air" fit the French school where you can learn to be a wind turbine technician and where there are many wind turbines nearby. The planned activities were intended to make participants more self-confident and help them reduce fears by facing new challenges and experiencing small and large "victories". Through activities that went beyond the classroom and that did not necessarily focus on academic knowledge, participants were able to achieve small goals they had set and thus get to know - or find again - the feeling of having accomplished something. The following activities were done, for example: - Hikes, campfires, boat trips, cross-country games, competitions and team sports and other sporting challenges; - Trips to stalactite caves, to an extinct volcano, to a botanical garden, and to other places where nature can be discovered; - Workshops and creative activities (making soap, salt dough, ceramics), as well as scientific experiments in group work that encouraged independent action-oriented work. The activities were aimed at strengthening the participants' self-confidence and motivation to learn. Our project actually helped the participating young people to better assess their own strengths and weaknesses, to accept their fellow students in their differences, to support and help each other and to find a successful way of working together. This has helped to motivate many young people to enjoy going to school again and to shape their own lives. This project has also given the teachers a great boost of motivation to continue in the direction already taken in terms of "encouraging and challenging" pupils. The relationship between students and teachers was greatly strengthened, especially through travelling together. The young people appreciated the commitment and dedication of their teachers to their well-being and were able to develop or reinforce new trust in adults. In the long term, the project aimed to raise awareness in the participating schools to organize even more student-centered, motivational activities to boost self-confidence, especially among the lower-performing students. Also, the goal remains to broaden the horizons of the students so that by the time they graduate from school, they not only hold a diploma in their hands, but see a perspective for their personal lives. At all partner schools, this project has helped to give the young people more courage and motivation for the future.